Do Sports Matter?

This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Last week I asked readers, What role should sports play in a society? What role do they play in ours?

Timothy is a critic of contemporary Western sports culture:

In some societies, sport competitions stand in for military competitions. Unfortunately, not ours. In some societies, sport competitions and betting on the outcomes was pacification of the masses by the emperors and kings of the time. Our sports mostly represent that, with citizens willing to destroy their bodies, searching for glory and in most cases wealth for the entertainment/pacification of others. The days of sports teaching teamwork and good sportsmanship have unfortunately left us in pursuit of the holy dollar.

Sharon prefers informal play to athletic teams:

My children rejected all “organized” sports because they are inevitably organized by adults. They gloried in “disorganized” sports in which participants made up their own rules, played in some unorthodox manner, and had barrels of fun. I never heard quarrels or had consolation chores over some critical championship lost. We had no pulled muscles, no concussions—just healthy exhaustion and a run on lemonade and cookies.

Aaron looks down on fandom:

Sports-fan identity is an excellent example of the author Kurt Vonnegut’s “granfalloon”: the mistaken belief that because you share a particular and singular interest, you are part of a meaningful group identity. Screaming and cavorting fans, stuffing their mouths with food and drink instead of being active and exercising themselves, seem like a metaphor for a dystopian future—or perhaps a dystopian present, if you compare their antics with the crowd events on January 6.

In contrast, Kathryn writes:

In the United States, identifying as a fan of a particular professional sports team is often a outlet for the temptation to join an in-group. It’s obvious that I arbitrarily like my favorite soccer team because they happen to play in my city, not because there is something intrinsically superior about them, but I still get chills clapping and chanting in unison with tens of thousands of fans as the players walk out before a match. I feel a sense of civic pride when the whole region unites to support a local team on a playoff run, or to celebrate a championship with a victory parade. I try to be suspicious of this same